ELLENSBURG, Wash. - The photo was everywhere in the spring of 2008. It was instantly recognizable. Two college softball players cradling an opponent in their arms, carrying her around the bases. It touched the hearts, as did the story behind the photo.
Western Oregon's Sara Tucholsky had just hit the first home run of her career, giving her team a 3-0 lead. Rounding first, she tore her ACL and collapsed in a heap. She couldn't continue running; according to the rules, her teammates or coaches couldn't help her around, as she'd be called out. So Central Washington's Mallory Holtman and Liz Wallace picked her up and carried her around the bases, letting her touch each one, while people in the audience cheered and cried and marveled at the amazing display of sportsmanship.
If this had happened five or 10 or 15 years earlier, it still would have probably made national news, would have been the feel-good story of that week. And it likely would have gone away. But in 2008, the picture and video kept spreading around the country, appearing on every sports and news show repeatedly. The players involved got shipped off to talk show after talk show to rehash what happened, all culminating when they received an ESPY for Best Moment.
So why all the attention? They obviously deserved praise and adulations, but those two Central Washington players certainly weren't the only athletes that year to show good sportsmanship. Theirs certainly wasn't the only heartwarming moments in sports that year. One of the many reasons people watch sports is to be inspired, and that moment provided that, but so do many others throughout the year.
Perhaps the answer might have had something to do with the times. Baseball players were admitting to PED use, football players were getting arrested, basketball players were having as many kids with as many different women as they had fingers, and we just needed a break. Perhaps we needed a story that made us smile.
Perhaps we needed a lesson in morality, a reason to make us question the win-at-all-costs mentality that is often instilled in athletes at a very young age. We might have needed a reminder that it's OK to lose, if you lose fairly. And maybe we just needed to see athletes that we can relate to, someone who seems just as real as us, who do something that we can see ourselves doing.
But I think it's the opposite. I think it was so great to see Holtman and Wallace carry Tucholsky around those bases because we know, deep down, that we wouldn't have done that ourselves.
No comments:
Post a Comment